I recently purchased a Pilot 78G from Norman at Hisnibs.com. He shipped it from Pennsylvania on a Monday afternoon and I received it and another pen on Wednesday morning. I was pleased to see the stamp on the package from the USPS that the shipping charge was exactly what Norman had charged me! I have gotten so tired of eBay and other internet merchants jacking up their shipping price to stretch their profit margins, and it was refreshing to find an honest merchant! He and James at Pear Tree Pens are far and above the best pen merchants out there on the net! Now on to the pen!

Fit & Finish:The 78G is a conservatively styled pen with gold tone furniture and accents, as well as the nib. It is classy and elegant in a simple way. The clip grips my shirt pocket with enough strength to hold it in there when I bend over, but not the death grip of my Hero 100! Here I have to give it a 4.5 out of 5, as I would prefer if it were available with silver tone.

Heft & Balance: This pen is very light weight, I think it may be the lightest fountain pen that I own, which I love. It is also very well balanced, with the weight distributed very evenly. Here I give it 5 out of 5.

Nib Quality: This is the best nib I've ever bought on a pen for less than thirty dollars, bar none! It is a medium, that writes more like a western fine. It is incredibly smooth, like butter on glass. The only nibs that I own that are better are the medium and broad nibs on my Pilot Vanishing Point pens; I also own a fine VP nib, but it is such a fine nib that it can be a little scratchy at times. This nib is great for filling in forms and jotting down notes. I wish I had had this pen in college as it would have saved me from some nasty hand cramps after marathon note taking sessions! Definitely a 5 out of 5 here!

Filling Mechanism: This pen features an aerometric style converter that is very is easy to squeeze and fill. It seems hold a very respectable amount of ink. Also, it is removable and you could use cartridges in it if you were so inclined. I assume it would take Pilot's brand of cartridges, but I couldn't say for certain. I'll give it a 4.5 out of 5 here because while it works very well, I do have to take it apart to refill and I can't really check the level of ink in it.

Overall this is the best pen I have purchased for under $30. Period. Unless you like a heavy pen I think you would be very happy with this little gem. I would definitely recommend this as a first pen purchase for a newbie or as a give away to someone you are trying to hook on fountain pens. Head on over to Hisnibs.com and let Norman take care of you!

--J. Haney

Note: I am not connected to Hisnibs.com in any way, I'm just an extremely satisfied customer!

What an attractive pen! I went to the website you linked--seems to have sold out of all of them. I can see your enthusiasm over the appearance--it looks like a pen to write with and get on with your work. I'll keep an eye out for one.

I've only bought one pen from Norman H. and he was so very nice that I would like to buy another one. I've emailed him and am on a waiting list for the 78G broad, which he says he may or may not get some more of.

Isn't sanity really a one-trick pony, anyway? I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking! But when you're good and crazy . . . ooh hoo hoo hoo! . . . the sky's the limit!--The Tick

I've only bought one pen from Norman H. and he was so very nice that I would like to buy another one. I've emailed him and am on a waiting list for the 78G broad, which he says he may or may not get some more of.

I've been on the list for several weeks but didn't know that shipment was iffy. Too bad it can be so difficult to get Japanese pens in the states. This discussion has gotten me thinking that a fine nib might be good for writing in margins. Maybe that will tide me over till the bold nibs arrive.

Are there any inks the 78Gs either love or hate? Not that I need more bottles of ink ...

I agree the pen is very light, which is a little too light for me. The pen is also small for my hands, but not too small. But the darned thing writes so well that just use it and enjoy it. I got a B nib that is a great M italic. The nib is relative smooth, ink flow is good, and the line variation is surprising.

I am on the waiting list for a second B nib. I had also understood that Norm is sniffing out NOS items, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Yesterday I pulled the trigger on a black 78g with a fine nib, from isellpens. Would have preferred a green medium nib, but after all of the rave reviews, these pens are tough to find.

I've been looking for something lightweight and inexpensive that writes a fine line. Lately most of my writing has been note-taking in classes, and I think this will be a sweet little pen for it. Can't wait to get it.

Ordered mine just a few days early, I suppose. If it writes as well as everyone says, I imagine I'll be ordering another in Forest Green from Norman. (For some reason I feel like I need a green pen lately)

It came! USPS and UPS packages don't reach my apartment until about 5:00pm, but when I checked my email at 9:30 am, FedEx said the package had been delivered!

This pen really does write well. The Japanese F nib is exceptionally fine. The nib was a bit scratchy at first, but after a few minutes on craft paper and a few swipes over an old penny, it smoothed out considerably. Flow is consistent; it doesn't skip at all. It's a drier nib than some, but I'm looking forward to that (no more smudged lecture notes)

**Edited after a day of writingWow, talk about a great pen for the price. I think this will be my daily carry for a while. It lays down a beautiful extra-fine line with no skipping. (Its currently loaded with Noodler's Walnut, which performs excellently in this nib) The pen is very lightweight, which I think I'll like a lot. I'll be ordering another one of these soon.

This is the first pen I've used with a squeeze converter. I like it as it's easy to fill one-handed. I suspect I'll get decent mileage out of a fill with such a fine nib.

All in all, I'm very pleased. Also, isellpens was a pleasure to deal with. Shipping was prompt and communication was excellent. I'll be back for more.

I just received mine (medium nib) today and I have to say, it's a good pen, but not a terrific pen. It's my opinion that my inexpensive Duke, knocks the socks off the pilot in terms of smoothness and writing pleasure. I also own the broad point which is good, but not any better than my Pelikan 150 with italic nib.

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It never seems like I can have all of the Pilot 78Gs fully in stock at one time (although the F and M nibs are coming within a week), but I do now have the famous 'B' nibs again. No black this shipment, but for the first time....green, red and teal!

A week ago I got a green 78G with the -B- nib, which is that italic/stub nib.

I baught it on ebay from "mizukushi" located in Hong Kong for US $29,74 (Including US $9,75 Shipping to Austria)He in the moment offers several of them in different colours and nib sizes.See http://search.ebay.c...QsassZmizukushiHe wrote me some nice mails, and added a funny black nicely writing disposable fountain pen as gift. (He sells them also in boxes of 10 starting with $0.99)

Now to my oppinion about the 78G:Design is a little "baroque", like those early japanese cars, but plesant for me - I like green, specially that with a blueish touch!

It is VERY light, which I find to be very comfortable.The Clip is strong, and holds the pen secure, even in the trouser pocket.

It fills easily with it's squeecer and holds quite a lot of ink.

Now the NIB: I like the stub/italic nibs, that's why I baught the pen.BUT unlike described in several other postings as "very smooth" mine was/is VERY scratchy. After the first page of writing there was even a little "ball" of scratched off paper fibers on the nib.As I didn't have any fine abrasive paper at hand to polish the nib, I took a box of matches, and scribbled around on it. The nib became feelable smoother, and after several repeatings of the procedure it now is quite ok.

It writes really nice, from the first touch on the paper, rather dry (even with my Quink mixture), VERY italic, and also reacts very fine on changes of the pressure during writing. As it's now getting smoother and smoother the more I write with it the more I like writing with it.In fact I'm beginning to get really fond of this little cheapy.And definitely I prefer it already to my several months old Pelikan Level 5, which is a pretty fine pen, but writes bone-hard, and has no way of changing inks.(You can't even rinse it!).

My girlfriend has used one of these for a number of months now, and it's a great pen. It's a no-frills pen with a Pilot Fine point. It's actually close to a Western Extra Fine. Despite being so fine, it's still surprisingly smooth. She uses it with the squeeze converter and it's been quite good. It does seem to have the habit of forcing out extra drops when the converter is full- even when she bleeds off 2 or 3 full drops at filling. Other than that, a great daily pen.

I purchased a 78G from Hisnibs recently, and it arrived two days after I ordered it! It's a lovely teal colored 'F' point, and good for marginalia (Morgana). I've compared it with my Prera 'F', and found the latter to be just a hair finer still.

There's something about the (low) price of these two pens that makes holding them in your hands just a little more precious.

Ordered a Red Pilot 78G with the fine nib from a Hong Kong ebay seller, with the turnaround just over a week for the package to arrive from Hong Kong. In the package was a simple cheap converter similar to the con-20, a single cartridge, instruction manual, and the Pilot 78G fountain pen sealed in plastic wrapper.

Initial impressions of the Pilot 78G is the fountain pen is short, light weight writing impliment, slightly smaller in dimensions to a Sailor 1911M. Thus perfect for users with little hands or a pen required to be transported in a handbag or jeans pocket. The pen comes with a standard 22K gold plated Japanese nib, and a plastic body, grip section, constructed using the heat injection process as indicated by a large hole found at the base of the body.

As with any Pilot fountain pen it writes smoothly and very dry at first, leaving a line equal to Japanese Fine or Westernized Extra-Fine nib (Cross ink). Unlike pens from the same manufacturer, and similar to Sailor Fountain pens when the nib was reversed, it felt horribly scratchy and nasty to use. Fortunately being a cheap pen, this was the first attempt to tune the nib. After the revered nib was re-worked, the pen wrote very smoothly, with a small amount of feedback leaving a finer line equal to a Pilot extra-fine nib.

Initially dissatisfied with the overall performance and result of the pen, but after taking time to tune the fountain pen, I'm satisfied with the fine line left by the pen. Infact this is the first time i've enjoyed using a fountain pen for a long time, as I have no worries over losing the pen. Simply it's durable for everyday use.